What is digital transformation?

I just did a search for papers on digital transformation and was surprised that I got a whole load of results from every single tech company out there addressing the question: “what is digital transformation?” (a question I have blogged about a lot).

As someone who has been doing this his whole life, my simple definition is taking an analogue company with digital on top to change into a digital company with analogue on top. There’s obviously a lot more to it than that – after all, it is a complete reconstruction of the whole company’s business model, as I’ve written about often – but the basics are changing the core of the company from physical to digital.

Nevertheless, I thought readers of The Finanser might find it interesting to see this collation of definitions and papers from some of the leading companies in the world.

Accenture

https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/insights/digital-transformation-index

Digital transformation is the process by which companies embed technologies across their businesses to drive fundamental change. The benefits? Increased efficiency, greater business agility and, ultimately, the unlocking of new value for employees, customers and shareholders.

Many different paths lead to digital transformation and each organisation’s journey will be unique. For example, a company might introduce AI or cloud computing to enhance its customer experience. Or it might redesign its supply chain to make better use of machine learning. A company can even make spot-on predictions about the products customers will want in a few months’ time, then shift production to meet demand.

In every case, though, starting a digital transformation journey requires a new mindset.

Amazon

https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/digital-transformation/

The term "digital transformation" describes the implementation of new technologies, talents, and processes to remain competitive in an ever-changing technology landscape. In the post-pandemic era, an organisation must have the ability to adapt fast to changes like these:

• Time-to-market pressures
• Sudden supply chain disruptions
• Rapidly changing customer expectations

Companies have to embrace digital transformation strategies if they want to keep pace with technological developments.

CIO

https://www.cio.com/article/230425/what-is-digital-transformation-a-necessary-disruption.html

Ideally led by the CEO in partnership with CIOs, CHROs, and other senior leaders, digital transformation requires cross-departmental collaboration to pair business-focused philosophies with rapid application development models.

Google Cloud

https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-digital-transformation

Digital transformation is when an organisation takes advantage of new technologies to redesign and redefine relationships with their customers, employees, and partners. Digital transformation for business covers everything from modernizing applications and creating new business models to building new products and services for customers. Organisations choose digital transformation frameworks as a way to reimagine themselves staying competitive in their respective businesses and industries.

HPE

https://www.hpe.com/uk/en/what-is/digital-transformation.html

Digital transformation is the process of transforming traditional business methods and integrating digital technology into various aspects of an organisation's operations to change how they function. By utilizing technologies like cloud computing, AI, and data analytics together to improve the operating model, it provides value to clients and enhances customer satisfaction, productivity, and creativity.

IBM

https://www.ibm.com/topics/digital-transformation

Digital transformation is a strategic initiative that incorporates digital technology across all areas of an organisation. It evaluates and modernizes an organisation’s processes, products, operations and technology stack to enable continual, rapid, customer-driven innovation … every organisation’s digital transformation implementation is different

McKinsey

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-digital-transformation

Digital transformation is the fundamental rewiring of how an organisation operates. The goal of a digital transformation, as outlined in the new McKinsey book Rewired: A McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI (Wiley, June 20, 2023), should be to build a competitive advantage by continuously deploying tech at scale to improve customer experience and lower costs.

Like many commonly used phrases, “digital transformation” has devolved into a catchall term that means different things to different people. That’s a problem. Digital transformation is critical for organisations to not only compete but survive. If leaders can’t be clear about what a digital transformation is—and align their organisation around a specific program—they can’t expect to be successful.

Oracle

https://www.oracle.com/uk/cloud/digital-transformation/

Digital transformation is often confused with two similar concepts: digitisation and digitalisation. The simplest of these, digitisation, is the process of transforming information from analog or manual form into digital form—for example, converting handwritten records into computerized records. Digitalisation is the process of applying digital technology and capabilities to do many of the things you regularly do, but in new and better ways that drive improved outcomes.

Digitalisation is the foundation for digital transformation. And digital transformation makes it possible to reimagine how you use your technology, people, and processes to move your business forward in new ways.

Salesforce

https://www.salesforce.com/eu/products/platform/what-is-digital-transformation/

Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation.

It transcends traditional roles like sales, marketing, and customer service. Instead, digital transformation begins and ends with how you think about, and engage with, customers.  As we move from paper to spreadsheets to smart applications for managing our business, we have the chance to reimagine how we do business — how we engage our customers — with digital technology on our side.

SAP

https://www.sap.com/resources/what-is-digital-transformation

Digital transformation involves integrating digital technologies and solutions into every area of a business. This is as much a cultural change as a technological one as it requires organisations to make fundamental shifts in the ways they operate and how they deliver customer experiences and benefits. Digital solutions also help to augment the workforce and can lead to business process and business model transformation.

Tech Target

https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/digital-transformation

Digital transformation is the incorporation of computer-based technologies into an organisation's products, processes and strategies. Organisations undertake digital transformation to better engage and serve their workforce and customers, and thus, improve their ability to compete. In challenging economic times, operational efficiency and cost optimisation can also become important transformation objectives.

Often large in scope, a digital transformation initiative can require an examination and reinvention of all facets of an organisation, from supply chains and workflows, to employee skill sets and org charts, to customer interactions and value proposition to stakeholders.

 

… there are 100s more articles out there defining digital transformation but, as you can see, there are two or three common themes. Digital transformation is:

• Reinventing the business model, organisational structure, processes, products and services
• Rethinking relationships with customers, employees and partners … in fact the whole supply and value chain
• This is why it more about cultural change than technological change
• For that reason, it must be led by the CxO executive team

#nuffsaid